Collaborative Research: Neighborhood Choice, Environmental Justice, and Policy Analysis

Resources For The Future Inc, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The environmental justice movement interprets documented correlations between pollution and low-income minority populations as evidence of environmental racism. An alternative explanation is that, because of income constraints or differential tastes for environmental quality, low-income minority households accept poor environmental quality in exchange for lower housing costs. The observed correlations may therefore reflect the income or taste differences between white and minority populations. This study examines the locational decisions of households, of different race, income, and housing tenure, based on the air pollution, school quality, and racial make-up of different communities. To do so, it builds on a spatial equilibrium framework, which explicitly models the endogenous sorting of households, formation of communities of specific types, and housing prices. The study will enable tests of migratory sorting based on environmental quality, and, through simulations, infer the effects of various public policies addressing environmental justice issues. This research will further our understanding of the social interactions of race, income, housing and public goods. It will also help design public policies to help address the correlation between pollution and income or minority populations. For instance, targeting improvements in environmental quality to lower-income minority neighborhoods may result in an influx of higher income households, driving up rents for the neighborhood's original inhabitants. In such cases, higher-income households may ironically receive the bulk of benefits-and low-income renter households may actually be made worse off. In this case, broader-based policies may actually be more effective for helping the poorer populations. Our research will help evaluate these and other policy questions. Finally, by helping develop a modeling framework that simultaneously studies migration, community formation, and housing prices, it will contribute to a research method that can address related topics, including studies of schooling, transportation, and local taxation.